Addendum Material To Attendees of The 2007 SCIP International Annual Conference and Exhibit
'Competitive Intelligence Entrepreneurship: Do Unto Yourself As You Would Do Unto Others'
Session Leader: Colleen H. Payne
New York Marriot Marquis - May 1, 2007
My Competitive Intelligence Firm
SAMPLE
Not intended for use as legal or financial document.
All rights reserved
C.H. Payne & Associates, LLC
April 2007 CONTENTS
1. Services
2. Service Description
3. Competitive Comparison
4. Fulfillment
5. Technology
6. Future Services
7. Financial Plan
Services
My CI Firm offers the expertise a company/government entity/university needs to develop new strategic/product distribution/competitive market & positioning information. This can be taken as high-level retainer consulting, market research reports, or project-based consulting.
2. Service Description
1. Retainer consulting: We represent a client as an extension of its business development and market development functions. This begins with complete understanding of the client’s s situation, objectives, and constraints. We then represent the client quietly and confidentially, sifting through various information sources as is appropriate to the client, representing the client in initial talks with possible allies, vendors, channels and strategies for near and far term.
2. Project consulting: Proposed and billed on a per-project and per-milestone basis, project consulting offers a client a way to harness our specific qualities and use our expertise to solve specific problems, develop and/or implement plans, and develop specific information.
3. Market research: Group studies available to selected clients at $X per unit. A group study is a packaged and published complete study of a specific market, channel, or topic. Examples might be studies of developing consumer channels in Japan or Mexico, or implications of changing margins in software.
3. Competitive Comparison
The competition comes in several forms:
1. The most significant competition is no consulting at all, companies choosing to do business development, channel development, strategic planning and competitive intelligenceresearch in-house. Their own managers do this on their own, as part of their regular business functions. Our key advantage in competition with in-house development is that managers are already overloaded with responsibilities, they don't have time for additional responsibilities in new information. Allso, My CI Firm can approach alliances, vendors, and channels on a confidential basis, gathering information and making initial contacts in ways that the corporate managers can't.
2. The high-level prestige management consulting: McKinsey, Bain, Arthur Anderson, Boston Consulting Group, etc. These are essentially generalists who take their name-brand management consulting into specialty areas. Their other very important weakness is the management structure that has the partners selling new jobs, and inexperienced associates delivering the work. We compete against them as experts in our specific fields, and with the guarantee that our clients will have the top-level people doing the actual work.
3. The third general kind of competitor is the international research company: International Data Corporation (IDC), Dataquest, Stanford Research Institute, etc. These companies are formidable competitors for published research and market forums, but cannot provide the kind of high-level consulting that My CI Firm will provide.
4. Fulfillment
1. The key fulfillment and delivery will be provided by the principals of the business. The real core value is professional expertise, provided by a combination of experience, hard work, and education (in that order).
2. We will turn to qualified professionals for freelance back-up in research and presentation and report development, which are areas that we can afford to sub-contract without risking the core values provided to the clients.
3. We utilize third-party information and expert services as required to optimize the client’s position.
5. Technology
My CI Firm Consulting will maintain the latest Windows and Macintosh capabilities including:
1. Complete e-mail facilities on the Internet, Compuserve, America-Online, and Applelink, for working with clients directly through e-mail delivery of drafts and information within a secure environment.
2. Complete presentation facilities for preparation and delivery of multimedia presentations on Macintosh or Windows machines, in formats including on-disk presentation, live presentation, or video presentation.
3. Complete desktop publishing facilities for delivery of regular retainer reports, project output reports. .
6. Future Services
In the future, My CI Firm will broaden the coverage by expanding into coverage of additional markets (e.g., all of Latin America, Far East, Western Europe) and additional product areas (e.g., telecommunications and technology integration).
We are also studying the possibility of newsletter or electronic newsletter services, or perhaps special on-topic reports.
7. Financial Plan
1. Projections
The market for Competitive Intelligence expertise is limitless and unquantifiable. All profit and non-profit entities attempting to achieve economic success must have forward-thinking strategies to advance and mitigate peril. Projections for distinct corporate lines/functions within defined business divisions are recommended. Conventionally, three forecast periods are estimated. Periodicity is either monthly or annually. Germane to those analyses and estimations, all assumptions, methodologies and statistcal detail must be presented. Detail of same customarily resides in appendices.
Financials
Beginning Period Future Period (s)
Beginning Balance
Opening Balance Cash & Checking
Plus Money Received
New Investment
New Loans
Sales
Other
Subtotal Money Received
Less Money Spent
Direct Costs
Direct Cost of Sales
Other Costs of Sales
Normal Operating Expenses
Payroll and Payroll Taxes, Benefits, Etc.
Rent and Utilities
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Other Outflows
Other Operating Expenses
Payments of Taxes
Debt Payments
Purchase of Assets
Other
Subtotal Money Spent
Ending Balance
Ending Balance Cash and Checking
Profit Before Interest and Taxes
Sales
Less Cost of Sales
Gross Margin
Less Operating Expenses
Profit Before Interest and Taxes
Net Cash Flow
SAMPLE
Not intended for use as legal or financial document.
All rights reserved
CH Payne Associates LLC
April 2007